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/wrestling /guests /Lavigne |
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/wrestling /guests /Lavigne |
| Guest Columns | Jon Lavigne |
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MORONIC OBSERVATIONS I've been reading feedback about Nitro and Raw and things like that lately. Not MY OWN feedback, of course, because I don't get any. And I don't get ant feedback, either. But one of the big complaints I've noticed in relation to Nitro this past Monday is what's been described as "jobber matches." You know, people complaining about all the Saturday Night regulars wrestling, like Kaz Hayashi and Mike Enos and Evan Karagias... WHAT ARE YOU PEOPLE BITCHING ABOUT? First you complain about how the young guys are being held down. you complain about Hogan, Savage, Piper, Luger, et. al., and bitch because the younger stars are getting held back. Now, you complain when people who have been working their asses off without pushes for YEARS get airtime on the marquee show. The live crowd was no different. During the Lash Leroux/Scotty Riggs match, they were actually chanting "We Want Sid!" I can understand why they expected him to run in during the match, but GODDAMMIT, at LEAST make an effort to enjoy the match! If people HAD been watching the match, they would have seen some good spots from BOTH the guys out there. But those two didn't have "big names," so they were ignored, derided, and complained about. When Enos and Karagias were in the ring, they did one hell of a job. Granted, that match should have been MUCH earlier in the card, but I guess they had top have their pet Demon on in the third hour to make sure he's shoved down our throats. But I digress. Enos and Karagias are both young or younger performers on the rise in the company. They do their appointed tasks well. Enos in particular impressed the hell out of me with some of the moves he pulled off in that match. But, again, those two didn't have "big names," so they were ignored, derided, and complained about. Then, I read a rumor that says Kidman's going to be buried after all the stuff about asking for his release and such, and I can be sure that there's going to be uproar all across the 'net about this. EVERYBODY that complains about this needs to understand one thing before their traps are opened: Billy Kidman was a jobber once. So was Terry fucking Bollea. So was Ric Flair, early in his career. So was Scott Hall. The list goes on and on here, but what I'm really trying to say is that anybody that's a star now once wasn't. If you're going to complain about people holding on to their egos well after their prime, you need to be quiet when the company actually makes an effort to get some airtime for their younger performers. Make up your minds! Last time, I said I was going to touch on all the Hogan crap going on. So, here goes part two of this fine little column that keeps going nowhere: Why I Hate Hulk Hogan. It's pretty convoluted here. Hogan's like... he's repulsive. He's always been repulsive to me, since I was a young child watching the stuff before "Rock 'N' Wrestling" was around. Here was this guy, balding, telling us to say our prayers and take our vitamins so we could grow up to be just like the Hulkster... that's wrong on so many levels, even BEFORE I found out about all the steroid stuff. I didn't KNOW at the time what kind of "vitamins" he was talking about, I just knew that I couldn't suspend my disbelief even at that age over the fact that he was able to beat Andre the freakin' Giant. Even my eleven-year-old mind knew that Andre doesn't get beat unless Andre wants to get beat. That's why I couldn't take him then, because he insulted my intelligence. Then, I didn't watch, for a long, long time. When I came back into the fold, reluctantly, I might add, one of the first things I said was "Hogan's still wrestling?" The answer to that question is, of course, no, Hogan's not wrestling. At that point, two years ago, I could tell that the man was well past his prime, and, quite frankly, I was amazed that WCW was basing their entire top angles around him. I'd been making fun of Savage for a while now, because of his Slim Jim commercials and his frequent appearances at Bicycle Stunt contests, so I was ready for HIS crap. But Hogan found new ways to piss me off. To say the least, he was effective as a heel, because he got the fans to REALLY dislike him. Then, I started reading about what was happening backstage, and the power that Hogan had, and still has, over the company, and my dislike for him broadened into the same type of dislike I hold for the Ego Formerly Known as Prince. All those things he was saying to the crowd about being directly responsible for the wrestling business... he actually believes it! He is actually certain that everyone loves him! And he's also using his leverage with the company to not only keep himself on top well after he should be, he's also keeping other people from climbing up that ladder to the top by cutting off all the rungs near the top. When Shane Douglas made his little introductory speech about "cutting the cancer out of WCW," he was talking about Ric Flair, but he was off the mark with that one. Eric Bischoff has been indulging in the mid-life crises of aging former superstars for the past, what three, four years now? Does it matter? I don't blame him for holding that meeting and laying down the law about people who are unhappy. I blame him for being blind to the cause of their unhappiness. I blame him for being misguided, for having his judgment clouded by the musings of a man who's over the hill in the wrestling world. Because, fifteen years after my unfavorable first impression, Hulk Hogan is again insulting my intelligence, and he's dragging down an entire company with him before he goes, a company that, unlike that OTHER promotion, I actually care about. Jon Lavigne freelance Mail the Author |
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